syzafar

hi,

my wife and i are considering moving to duke. for the past three years we have been salivating over the possiblity of moving from cincinnati to a place like SF or NY or boston or even philly. now, a great opportunity at duke has presented itself for both of us. we're just a little bit concerned about moving to a small college town like durham. so....here's the question:

any big-city types out there (or anyone, really) who moved to the research triangle area? how has it been? are there interesting things to do? how's the restaurant scene? cool neighborhoods?

basically....will we be bored out of our minds?

thanks

GoTravel

Yes, you will be bored out of your minds as there is no life in the Raleigh/Durham area.

No art, culture, shopping, sports, entertainment or dining.

For more on this subject, do a search for Raleigh.

There are also tons of threads from people moving from true large cities in the north such as Boston and New York to Atlanta, Charlotte, and yes, Raleigh.

You'll find the common thread is moving to the south.

PS The metropolitan population of Raleigh Durham is 1.2 million which places it right behind Cincinnati who's metro population is around 1.6 million.

I would suggest a little research on your part might make for a better move.

GoTravel

Forgot to add, MSNBC ranked Raleigh-Durham 13th on its top 50 places to live

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4625179/

and Forbes magazine placed it 2nd

http://www.forbes.com/bestplaces/

I didn't see Cinncinnati on either of those lists.

I did do a search for the top safest cities in the US and Cary, NC (within the RD area) was the Fifth safest city. You will find on the the most unsafe cities that Cincinnatti was ranked the 17th most dangerous city in the US.

Lastly, and godforbid, The Duke Medical Center is one of the top hospitals in the world if someone in your family gets ill.

It really isn't a drag being surrounded by UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Duke University, and NC State.

Tandoori_Girl

I spent less than a week in this area doing some research at Duke and the Univ. of NC at Chapel Hill. There is a lot to be said for being in a university community. And both of these universities have lots going on. Duke, for one, has a very up-and-coming documentary festival that is very cutting edge right now. As for the cities, it is a tri-city area as you know. I enjoyed Chapel Hill which had lots of charm. I think you'd find that restaurants are not quite as upscale or expensive as those in larger cities but, hey, what's wrong with that?!?

GoTravel

TG, you missed my point completely, this guy thinks he and his wife would be moving to podunk USA while dreams of East Village living slip through his grasp.

Raleigh has fantastic dining.

Tandoori_Girl

GT, I posted before your post before mine was on the board so maybe that's why you think I missed your point. I hadn't read your post. I was just posting my experiences there. Which didn't include any great restaurants at Raleigh but if you say so, that's OK by me.

travelrn

We relocated from central PA to Raleigh 5 years ago and I have nothing but good things to say about the area. The first year we lived in Chapel Hill while I was working at UNC. Chapel Hill is a quaint college town. Housing is a bit expensive and the nightlife in Chapel Hill is college oriented. Franklin Street is the main drag in Chapel Hill, it has your typical college nightlife scene and some really good restaurants. I would not suggest living in Durham. Not the safest place...I'm sure there are "nice" communities in the outskirts of Durham but for the most part it is not a pretty town. The only reason we go to Durham is to catch a Durham Bulls Baseball game..one of the best parks out there. After a year in Chapel Hill we moved to Raleigh. We live in North Raleigh which is a very upscale and very clean area. Tons of great neighborhoods, 3 great malls all within a 15 min drive..great schools. Great college sports...UNC and Duke basketball speak for themselves, hockey is a loss this season but the RBC center is a great place to catch a concert. Great concerts at Altell Pavillion which is outdoors. Downtown raleigh is not near as big as NYC or Philly but it has a good nightlife scence, the BTI performing arts center, The Convention Center, good musesums. You are 2 1/2-3 hours from the beautiful NC mountains...Ashville, Biltmore Estates, Boone and 2 1/2 hours to the beach...3 1/2 - 4 hours to the beautiful Outerbanks. Raleigh is consistently ranked in the top 10 best places to live and it is growing! The weather is great and the people are very friendly. A good mix of natives and northerners. I am a nurse and have worked at UNC hospital and now at Rex. I would definetly pick Raleigh over Chapel Hill. Good luck and feel free to email if you have any questions!

obxgirl

syzafar, I found your "will we be bored out of our minds' question off putting.

I moved from DC to WIlliamsburg Va (a genuine small college town, Durham is somewhat larger) a number of years ago. There are positives and negatives, for us with a family, more P than N. Can't judge in your circumstance but quite frankly if you've really spent years salivating over the possibility of moving to a SF, NY or Philly, you're setting yourselves up for dissapointment if you move to Raleigh. Apples and oranges.

Nicely articulated GoT.

Patrick

I agree that Raleigh/Durham is a great city with a ton of stuff to do. But in all fairness to syzafar, I'm not sure why we're making the comparison to Cincinnati. He clearly said they have been "salivating over the possibility of moving FROM Cincinnati", so I hardly think he needs any reasons to dislike it. What he's really saying is "will we be as happy in Raleigh/Durham as moving to SF, NYC, or Boston, which is what we were hoping to do?". And by comparison, well, no Raleigh/Durham is not nearly so "citified" as any of those places. So let's be honest here. If you're looking for big city life and all that goes with it, then YES you may be disappointed. If you were really unhappy in Cincinnati, I'm not sure how much happier you'll be in R/D.

syzafar

thanks all, for the *lively* discussion. i really think all of you got my drift quite well. i guess you all didn't really say anything i didn't know already, though. i didn't expect to get a big city experience in r/d. i guess we're just a little upset about having to give up "east village living," but the jobs are exactly what we are looking for. so off we go to NC! looking forward to taking advantage of all it has to offer....

Cassandra

Interesting. I've lived here more than 12 yrs. and still miss the north and "big city life" -- but I seriously bristled at syzafar's post, was ready to beg him not to come.

Our first couple of years, I suspect we had very unattractive, alienating attitudes, since we kept noticing the things we DIDN'T have here and kept going back to Chicago, Boston, DC, NYC, and Phila. to get them. Eventually two things happened -- we began to notice what we DID have here, and the area began to catch up in some significant ways.

We've not only adjusted to the lifestyle and pace, we now find our visits to Big Cities exciting but reinforcing of the idea that there's a lot we don't have to put up with here-- traffic, grime, etc. -- and I always let out a sigh of relief and comfort when I get off the plane at RDU.

Can't compare this area with Cincinnati, so I don't know whether it'll be a step up or down for you, but one last thing: Duke is a WEIRD place and 25 cents says eventually it'll be more determining of how you feel about being here than what you think of the restaurants or museums or anything else. Hope you're both in one of the good parts of Duke -- there are many, but then again..... good luck!

Andrew

A friend and I visited Raleigh a few years ago (I live in Portland, OR). We had both heard good things about it. She was thinking of going to school there. We were very disappointed. Yes, there are the universities...but the area is basically one big suburb. We couldn't find much going on in downtown Raleigh a Saturday night when we were there. Compared to Portland - a tiny city, really - Raleigh seemed like a sleepy old town.

True story: we asked some of the locals in Raleigh while we were there how they liked the city. One waitress told us she lived in the suburbs "to avoid the hustle and bustle of downtown." To this day, my friend and I still laugh at that line. While we were there, we couldn't find any hustle or bustle in Raliegh.

True, the area does have it's appeal to some, depending on your desired lifestyle. It probably does seem laid-back and pleasant to people who don't love city life. And it's pretty in parts. But if you are craving a place like SF or NYC, Raliegh would seem like a huge letdown. There is almost no "city life" in Raliegh that we could find. Duke is a gorgeous campus. The old confederate graveyard was cool, though, and I enjoyed one of the museums - but those two took half a day.

By the way, I have another friend whose sister lives in Raliegh and he's visited her for years, and he has pretty much exactly the same opinion of Raleigh as I do, and he's spent far more time there than I have.

I visited Cincinnati last fall, FYI, and I would say Raleigh would seem like a bit of a letdown to me if I were moving there - but that's just me.

Andrew

Pat2003

Raleigh is nothing like SF or NYC. Spent there one year doing reserach when in gradute school.It is a nice place but if you are counting or something similar to NYC, Boston or SF you may be dissapointed.
You made a similar mistake to mine when you asked <will we be bored out of our minds?> I asked a question about snow storm and didn't realize how this will play against me. At my case I was just trying to find out how residence of that area survived an unexpected snow strom.
GoTravel may be helpful on this board but you have to ask politically corect questions. Once she thinks you have no right to make such statement you will find yourself blacklisted in her book. She ignored one poster's question about Cherleston when answering all questions asked by the other posters.LOL! Too bad because we found people in Carolinas very nice. Now we can say most people in Carolinas are nice but few. Remember to never say anything negative about their state.

Such a sad statment <TG, you missed my point completely, this guy thinks he and his wife would be moving to podunk USA while dreams of East Village living slip through his grasp.> Where this came from?

GoTravel

Pat, what on earth are you talking about and who's question did I ignore about Cherleston?

My point is the poster was inferring giving up big city life in Cincinnati for nowhere USA. I was inferring that Cincinnati isn't that big a deal and RDU isn't nowhere USA.

And you offered what to this post while criticizing my post? If you go back and reread my post, you'll see I did offer good advice.

Pat2003

Your help with Charleston is appreciated.
Why are you being so sarcasticsometimes? Be happy!

GoTravel

Again, whos question did I ignore about Charleston and what was the question? I'd be more than happy to go back and answer.

Gretchen

I've lived in SF and NYC--and actually near Cincinnati and know it pretty well. I live in and love NC now. Among the other good things about the Triangle area mentioned already add that you can be at the beach in 2-3 hours and ski in the mountains in 3 hours. Wonderful access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and its camping and hiking areas. Raleigh and Durham have great shopping. There are some pretty good chefs (not just restaurants) around that area also. And don't forget--NC is the BBQ capital of the country. Charlotte is close enough for pro sports, if that is your cup of tea. The Triangle has the college sports scene covered like a blanket.
As for Go Travel "ignoring" anyone's question, I found her/his answer pretty on target.
Duke is a great university--definitely not a state university but a national one bringing a lot of cosmopolitan influence. There are parts of Durham that definitely reflect its industrial/tobacco history but the areas around the university are beautiful.

Subway_Scoundrel

I must be crazy but I have traveled th world and been to Cinncy and did not think of it as the "Metro" capital of the world. You may be thrown off from the "arts and culture" here since we usually don't fight to keep it out of 1.2M population as they have done in Cincy. So, in short, it is no where as near as conservative as Cincy, but we do have our share.

Patrick

Subway_Scoundrel, did you fail to read the original post? syzafar made clear they were salivating at the idea of moving FROM Cincinatti, so I don't think he is exactly defending it. He seems to be well aware that Cincy is not the METRO capital of the world, that's why he's looking to move to a place that IS.

Patrick

Sorry, someday I'll learn to spell Cincinnati!!!!